Mahāpajāpatī

Prince Siddhartha with Mahaprajapati Gautami

Mahāprajāpatī (P. Mahāpajāpatī; T. skye dgu'i bdag mo chen mo སྐྱེ་དགུའི་བདག་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་; C. mohebosheboti 摩訶波闍波提) was the maternal aunt and step-mother of Gautama Buddha. She was the sister of Maya, the Buddha's mother. According to some accounts, she was also married to Śuddhodana, the leader of the Shakya clan.

She was the first woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun (bhikkhuni). She also became an arhat.

Further reading:

• Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Mahāprajāpatī
• Mindy Newman and Kaia Fischer (2022), A Garland of Flowers: The story of Mahaprajapati, the Buddha’s stepmother and the first nun, Tricycle